Concerned about sequencing, and fearing any appearance of bias toward the developers at 311 Mapleton Ave., the Boulder City Council will hold its own public hearing on a hotly contested quadrant of the development site.

At issue are about four acres of land at 311 Mapleton, the 16-acre property that once housed the Boulder Sanitarium, then Boulder Memorial Hospital and later Boulder Community Hospital.

A team of developers seeks to build The Academy on Mapleton Hill, a campus proposed to include 93 independent housing units for seniors, plus a wellness center and a memory care facility.

Most of the site has a land-use designation of "Public," but the four acres in question are designated as "Open Space — Other" — a little-used category that, in spite of its name, does not always apply to actual open space. In this case, the four "Other" acres include a large swath of paved surface parking.

City staffers who've examined the matter say the "Other" designation was "clearly" made in error decades ago, and should be corrected so that the entire site can be brought under the same land-use category.

If that correction is not made, it could impact the developers' ability to use those four acres as they've intended — or not; there appears to be no consensus among city officials, including those on the council, as to whether the site plan is ultimately affected by a correction or lack thereof.

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Still, the "Other" portion has inspired significant citizen protest from people who believe the current designation should be maintained. In general, these people also oppose the broader development plans at 311 Mapleton.

The land-use issue is distinct from, though clearly related to, that broader proposal. The Planning Board is set to consider possible approval of the entire project on April 19.

And recently, in a ruling that differed from that made by the Open Space Board of Trustees, the Planning Board voted 4-2, with one member recused, that city staff was right, and that "clearly" an error occurred.

"The majority of members found that there was a clear mapping error," said Planning Board Chair John Putnam, "and therefore that the 4-acre parcel should be more appropriately characterized as a public use rather than that ('Other') category."

The City Council — which has made clear that it intends to exercise its option to call up the proposal for a final review separate from the Planning Board's, and which has final authority — is concerned about sequencing. It wasn't set to review either the land-use issue or the broader proposal until after the Planning Board had completed both.

Seeing the potential of the land-use designation decision to affect the rest of the development, the council felt it would be prudent to settle the former before the Planning Board takes a crack at the latter.

It will hold its own public hearing on the four acres of "Other" space on April 3, and it clearly anticipates lengthy discussion and citizen input, as that hearing is scheduled to run for three hours.

Putnam, whose term will soon be up, won't get to vote on the site review, but he said the council's move seems sensible.

"Given that one of our site review criteria is to take a look at the (Boulder Valley) Comprehensive Plan and the underlying (land-use) map, what that map will be will impact the board's consideration," Putnam said. "It does make sense to have that sequence so council can weigh in on the underlying map before Planning Board finishes its site review."

Beyond the perceived practicality of this new sequencing, some on the council commented last week that waiting to hear the site proposal and the land-use issue on the same night would be a bad look.

Councilwoman Mary Young said that a council discussion of the "Other" controversy alone, then a later discussion of the site plan, would set up better "optics" than if both reached the council at once. Were they to be heard in that manner, Young said, it would look like a "rubber-stamp."

Adding to that point, Councilwoman Lisa Morzel said, "I think to put the two hearings together is almost corrupt."

Mayor Pro Tem Aaron Brockett later responded, "Corrupt is a very strong word."

Morzel said she could have chosen her words better, and added, "It's the perception of the public."

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